F5 Games of "Pocket Heroes"

YouTube

F5 Games landed on the scene with a bang, putting out an absurdly fun turn-based RPG called Pocket Heroes. We can't wait to see what happens with this company as it updates its current release and puts more out down the road.

Oculus of the Rift headset

Oculus is developing the Rift, a user-worn headset designed for gaming. Turn your head in the real world and it turns your character's head in-game. It's still raising funds via Kickstarter, but this could quickly change how games are conceived and developed.

Dark Sky Company of "Dark Sky"

Dark Sky has quickly become the only weather app we care about any more. It tells you down to the minute when it's going to start raining. No fancy bells and whistles, just a beautiful radar and a countdown to precipitation.

Mike Bithell of "Thomas Was Alone"

Screenshot

Mike Bithell's beautiful minimalist game "Thomas Was Alone" puts you in a world of rectangles and music as you explore and complete each level. The design is thoughtful, the puzzles are engaging, and the music complements the aesthetic of the game perfectly.

2D Boy of "World of Goo"

2D Boy made a game that caught on in such a huge way that it's been ported to multiple platforms, even the often-ignored Linux. The company was formed by Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel when they left their jobs at Electronic Arts to stick it out on their own, and they've succeeded in a big way.

Ouya of the Ouya console

Ouya

Ouya aims to remake the world of console-based gaming with its new Android-based hardware. Its homerun Kickstarter campaign has raised $6.5 million to date, and there are still a few days to go. Will it be enough to change the gaming world? We don't know, but such a valiant independent effort deserves to be acknowledged.

Donut Games of "Traffic Rush"

Donut Games has been around for a while, putting out loads of App Store hits (our favorite being Traffic Rush). It's consistently figured out how to create games that appeal to a wide variety of people regardless of their gaming tastes.

Rubicon Mobile of "Great Big War Game"

It started with Great Little War Game, but Rubicon Mobile has secured its place in the minds of hex-based wargamers with its most recent release, titled (of course) Great Big War Game. Don't let the cartoony style fool you -- strategy is the name of the game in this top-down turn-based battle.

Terry Cavanagh of "VVVVVV"

28-year old Irish developer Terry Cavanagh is responsible for numerous well-known indie games, with VVVVVV probably being his best-known effort. It's all at once simple, fun, frustrating, and addictive.

Nicalis of "Cave Story"

Nicalis released a mainstream port indie mainstay Cave Story, which has since found its way onto computers, consoles, and iOS devices. The company has received loads of awards for its efforts in the gaming business and we look forward to seeing its efforts continue.

InMethod of "Air Video"

We love watching video on the go, and there's no better way to do it than by remotely accessing your video server on your home computer and having InMethod's Air Video stream content to your delight. This novel solution to the limited space on iOS devices has earned the company a big place in our hearts.

Nik Software of Snapseed

Ever wanted a more fully-featured Instagram? Sure, you can apply cool quirky filters to your images, but there's a cool auto-correct feature, a Selective Adjust feature for calling attention to specific objects, and loads of borders that make a cool finishing touch.

Andreas Illiger of "Tiny Wings"

Illiger keeps himself out of the spotlight pretty well, but it's okay -- his hit game Tiny Wings speaks for itself. It's one of the most perfect casual games we've ever played, so it deserves all the success it's seen in the App Store.

ZeptoLab of "Cut the Rope"

After the modest but notable success of "Parachute Ninja," ZeptoLab stepped up and delivered "Cut the Rope," and there's been no looking back ever since. Billing itself as "an independent team of professionals dedicated to the science of fun," ZeptoLab somehow figured out how to make a game truly appealing to everyone.

Team Meat of "Super Meat Boy"

Super Meat Boy has become one of the biggest names in indie gaming, and it's all thanks to the efforts of Team Meat. After countless problems getting the game released, it was finally picked up and lightly promoted by Microsoft, but that was all it took to catapault Team Meat to center stage.

Dermandar of "DMD Panorama"

iTunes

Dermandar has made a name for itself as one of the go-to places to create stunning panoramas using nothing more than your iPhone's camera. The beautifully-designed app lets you share them online afterwards, and people can click and drag inside your photo to rotate it up to 360 degrees.

Marco Arment of Instapaper

Arment was the lead developer of Tumblr, but now makes his name as the brain behind Instapaper, the popular service for reading web articles while offline. Instapaper has two million registered accounts and Arment's personal blog, Marco.org, is exceptionally well-read.

Number None of "Braid"

Apple

Developer Jonathan Blow quit college when he was just a semester away from earning his computer science degree. The payoff came when he released Braid for XBox Live Arcade in 2008. Originally put together as a critique of modern game development (when users die, they can "rewind" time to immediately come back to life), Braid's popularity has found a home on XBox, Playstation, Windows, Mac, and Linux boxes.

Mojang of "Minecraft"

Apple

Minecraft's popularity has swept the world as users collaborate online to build new in-game environments together. This game was originally developed by a single person and it's now the 8th best-selling computer game ever, more popular than Diablo III.